Looking for a trustworthy professional E6 lab in the UK

ozphoto · Sep 9, 2020

I remember using Metro Imaging in London when I was assisting various commercial photographers - dropped off their work and collected when done, not sure what they're like now, but looking at who they do work for leads me to believe they're pretty spot on.

https://metroimaging.co.uk

neilt3 · Sep 9, 2020

tezzasmall said:
Purely out of interest, I've just looked at the site and can find no mention of VAT being added later or included in the prices shown. In fact I can find no mention of it at all, which I find a little strange...

Personally I would accept that VAT is included in the prices listed, unless for some reason photographic processing is exempt from it?

Terry S

We'll , if developing is a service rather than a product , IIRC , their turnover needs to be in excess of a certain figure before they have to charge VAT .
I've no idea who they are or how busy they are , but these days you would need to develop a heck of a lot if film to reach the figure .
Twenty years ago , no problem .
2020 ? Unless they do other things besides , possibly not .
I don't know the figure these days , but the last time I had reason to check , about 25 years ago , if your turnover was less than £20,000 pa , then you didn't need to charge VAT .

richyd · Sep 9, 2020

ozphoto said:
I remember using Metro Imaging in London when I was assisting various commercial photographers - dropped off their work and collected when done, not sure what they're like now, but looking at who they do work for leads me to believe they're pretty spot on.

https://metroimaging.co.uk

Metro Imaging disbanded all wet processing and B&W hand printing a few years ago. I was speaking with one of their B&W printers at that time who had just setup their own service after being laid off but took on work from Metro. Unless they have resuscitated their processing equipment, it they kept it, they must farm out their processing. I never used them much as they were more expensive but were local so handy for an odd, urgent roll. The last time I dropped off a film I got the comment, "Film, what's that?".

ozphoto · Sep 10, 2020

richyd said:
Metro Imaging disbanded all wet processing and B&W hand printing a few years ago. I was speaking with one of their B&W printers at that time who had just setup their own service after being laid off but took on work from Metro. Unless they have resuscitated their processing equipment, it they kept it, they must farm out their processing. I never used them much as they were more expensive but were local so handy for an odd, urgent roll. The last time I dropped off a film I got the comment, "Film, what's that?".

That last comment makes me shudder, considering they tout that they still process E6, B&W and C41 - guess someone didn't tell the front-of-house staff . . .

film_man · Sep 10, 2020

tezzasmall said:
Purely out of interest, I've just looked at the site and can find no mention of VAT being added later or included in the prices shown. In fact I can find no mention of it at all, which I find a little strange...

Personally I would accept that VAT is included in the prices listed, unless for some reason photographic processing is exempt from it?

Terry S

A business only needs to charge VAT if the turnover is over £85000 per year. For a small business not making that there is therefore no need to charge and account for VAT. If a product is exempt from tax yet a business still turns over 85k then they charge no VAT but are still obliged to issue VAT receipts showing the 0 rating.

film_man · Sep 10, 2020

For the original question, Peak Imaging is great for process only. The scans not so much. Personally I send everything nowadays for process and scan to Carmencita lab in Spain. The results are impeccable.

film_man · Sep 10, 2020

richyd said:
Metro Imaging disbanded all wet processing and B&W hand printing a few years ago. I was speaking with one of their B&W printers at that time who had just setup their own service after being laid off but took on work from Metro. Unless they have resuscitated their processing equipment, it they kept it, they must farm out their processing. I never used them much as they were more expensive but were local so handy for an odd, urgent roll. The last time I dropped off a film I got the comment, "Film, what's that?".

Only ever been to Metro once, went to ask about large format printing and paper options. Almost told off for not just checking the website then they asked me wait around for ages till their "expert" came along who told me to check the website and then just left. As if the website will show me the paper in real life.

I used Bayeux for scanning a couple of times, for the astronomical cost the results were very average. Their large printing was excellent though.

Tom Kershaw · Sep 10, 2020

film_man said:
For the original question, Peak Imaging is great for process only. The scans not so much. Personally I send everything nowadays for process and scan to Carmencita lab in Spain. The results are impeccable.

No issues with international shipping and postage delays / damage? Have you tried Ag Photolab? I've only used them once for a Fujiflex print from a digital camera file, but results were very good.

film_man · Sep 10, 2020

Tom Kershaw said:
No issues with international shipping and postage delays / damage? Have you tried Ag Photolab? I've only used them once for a Fujiflex print from a digital camera file, but results were very good.

No issues both with Royal Mail and DHL. I think I tried AG ages ago, the things is all those labs do generally auto scans, Carmencita processes each frame individually and they have a profile with the look I want.

pentaxuser · Sep 10, 2020

film_man said:
Only ever been to Metro once, went to ask about large format printing and paper options. Almost told off for not just checking the website then they asked me wait around for ages till their "expert" came along who told me to check the website and then just left. As if the website will show me the paper in real life.

.

I did a check and all the staff had been on a customer care course just before you went No wonder businesses go bust wasting money on daft things

pentaxuser

Henning Serger · Sep 11, 2020

I am one of the moderators over at the "Slide Film Photography" group on facebook. We have a sticky thread / list there where photographers can recommended E6 labs they have made good experiences with.
From our UK members there we've got the following recommendations for the UK:

www.peak-imaging.com

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/

http://www.palmlabs.co.uk/

http://www.photographique.co.uk

http://www.ccimaging.co.uk/

http://www.johnsalimphotographic.co.uk/e6.html

www.the-darkroom.co.uk

https://www.amimage.co.uk/pages/film-processing

Best regards,
Henning

LolaColor · Oct 16, 2020

For anyone in Ireland, my local lab has started to offer E6 (the only lab in the country to do this). I haven't tried them yet but they showed me some results on a lightbox and it looked fine.

Should be a faster turnaround than sending rolls to UK for those in the Emerald Isle.

https://www.thebiggerpicture.ie/#

relistan · Oct 18, 2020

LolaColor said:
For anyone in Ireland, my local lab has started to offer E6 (the only lab in the country to do this). I haven't tried them yet but they showed me some results on a lightbox and it looked fine.

Should be a faster turnaround than sending rolls to UK for those in the Emerald Isle.

https://www.thebiggerpicture.ie/#

Oh, wow! I was just trying to find someone in Ireland to process E6 and there appeared to be nobody doing it any more. This is also the story I got from other photogs here in Dublin. I will check them out. Thanks!

Looking for a trustworthy professional E6 lab in the UK

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